Kashmiri pandits alienated again

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Kashmiri pandits 'at home' with row

Government's plans to relocate displaced Kashmiri Pandits outside Jammu city, is snowballing into a controversy.

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Srinagar: The Supreme Court recently took notice of the plight of Kashmiri Pandit migrants.

But those who chose to stay back in the valley say the Government first needs to look after them.

“Till today, we have not got any assistance or sympathy from the state or the from the central government. First settle these 165 families without disturbing the relations with the majority community,” says a Kashmiri pandit, Sanjay Tickoo.

Tickoo lives with his mother, wife and two children in Srinagar. His family is one of the few families that decided to stay back when most people from their community decided to migrate in 1989.

Through these 17 years, he never got any support from the government. But the recent notice issued by Central government seeking a White Paper on the plight of Kashmiri Pandit migrants has set Tickoo thinking.

Kashmiri Pandits living in the valley primarily demand job packages and incentives for those families that stayed back.

They also want to be resettled in areas where they resided prior to the migration, but reject the idea of an exclusive area for themselves.

They also do not want resettlement at the cost of estranging the Muslims.

About 200 Kashmiri pandit families were supposed to move into a residential colony in Budgam in Kashmir last year, but the construction work was stopped after the Central Government stopped all the funding for the project.

Meanwhile the likes of Tickoo and many other families, it might take a long time before they can feel at home again.